California is really bad about restricting everything. This state is turning into Cuba West, you can't get any good affordable paints here anymore and don't even think about getting anything stronger than acetone, they would ban that if they could get away with it.

Yeah, California is cuckoo-nuts in that regard. McMaster can't even ship friggin' low VOC electronic grade RTV silicone to my company out there.

Oh. Good point. Never having used a VFD before, I had assumed they'd all (mostly?) use HF chopping with a filter, for reasonably sine-like outputs. Are there any like that?

Nope, they all put ~400 V square waves into the motor, with pretty sharp edges. Most 230/460 V motors handle this pretty well. If the motor was specifically wound with insulation only good for 230 V or so, that could be a problem.

You can add series inductors on the motor side of the VFD to round off the sharp edges.

Jon

As an old Oz motor, it will have been desired for 240v Phase to Neutral (415 Phase to Phase).The insulation may be quite a lot better than that, as they were probably also sold in WA, which for many years had a 250/440v system.

It can be had under the Rust-Oleum label here (Hammerite isn't available in NA).

Perhaps it should be relabeled as TerraHertz brand though, as I suspect there'd be added value (suspect he's the type to paint the item as a bonus). Toss in his favorite food & fuzzy logic generating beverage, and it'd make for a nice day in the shop. Paint or not.

"Hammerite" appears to be the UK/EU brand name while in NA, it was called "Hammertone"The generic name (at least according to Wikipedia) is "hammer paint"As @nanofrog observed, Rustoleum is selling this paint in several colors, although not that lovely pastel green color shown by @TerraHertz

Out and about day so came home with a few bits and bobs.PVC plumbing HW for the vertical tube mount that will house a new J-Pole antenna for a 500m RC RF link.For above and ex Jaycar some BNC crimp on's for the 50 coax feeder.Coax crimp pliers.Coax stripper.N-SMA adapter.

New SD card for camera.USB3 8Gb stick.Panasonic batteries, the ones you're always short of, AA and AAA.3V lithium for the sons rangefinder.

Messtechniker, HighVoltage, KjeltI hate you all, I just bought a Spannfix ESD from conrad.de

you're welcome. The good thing I noticed if you clamp it on your ESD mat you don't need the extra cable, it just conducts enough through the mat, at least with my mat I measure a bit more than 1Mohms to earth (mat had 1Mohms to earth).

My Amateur Radio Club, the North East Radio Club, ordered 10 of the QCX transceiver Kit from QRP labs, they arrived today. A really nice single band CW only tranceiver that uses I/Q for mixing, not an NE602 and is fully digital synthesised/digital display. USD$49!! Happy customer only. Hopefully we can get some of the more inert members building and try a little morse code

An extra Bernstein clamp/helping hand, this time chose an ESD safe version

Looks awesome!

(FYI, that’s called a “vise” in English. A “helping hands” are the dinky things with alligator clips, e.g. for holding wires. And clamps are the freestanding things you use to e.g. clamp together two pieces of wood while they glue; that is, a clamp is put onto the workpiece, whereas a vise holds the workpiece.)

What is the use case for an ESD vise*? I would think it’s not convenient for holding PCBs.

What is the use case for an ESD vise*? I would think it’s not convenient for holding PCBs.

Depends if you have 4mm or more room on a side of the pcb, that is enough to hold it steady while soldering, drilling, cleaning, scrubbing, removing solderlacquer etc.Also I use it for everything else you normally would use those helpless helping hands for: holding wires, connectors, etc.

Then it has some extra functionality not found in helping hands: - Pressure close flatband headers, you know the connectors on flatband you parallel have to apply pressure to. - clamp your plastick or alu box (if smaller than the clamping distance or else you have to clamp on one of the sides) for drilling holes or perform other mechanical operations.

There is a special pcb holder from Bernstein if you need it, but I don't. When I work under the stereomicroscope I use a flat vise.This is my second Bernstein, it is one of the tools I could not work without. If it is in your way you unscrew two turns and it is loose (4 seconds) and can be put anywhere, to mount same procedure.

Oh, the "whys" of the datasheets... The information is there not to be an axiomatic truth, but instead each speck of data must be slowly inhaled while carefully performing a deep search inside oneself to find the true metaphysical sense...

Oh, the "whys" of the datasheets... The information is there not to be an axiomatic truth, but instead each speck of data must be slowly inhaled while carefully performing a deep search inside oneself to find the true metaphysical sense...